Pew Abandons Its Ambitious 10-Year 'Children's Initiative'

The Pew Charitable Trusts, the nation's fifth-largest foundation,
has abandoned a multimillion-dollar effort to overhaul how states
provide social, education, and health services to children.

Foundation officials acknowledged last week that Pew had terminated
the "Children's Initiative,'' a 10-year plan it unveiled in the summer
of 1992 to spend $55 million to $60 million on revamping children's
services. (See Education Week, Aug. 5, 1992.)

The Philadelphia foundation has spent about $5 million on the
project, most of which was awarded through the intermediary
organization administering the initiative, the Center for Assessment
and Policy Development in Bala Cynwyd, Pa. The figure includes five
$100,000 grants for states selected to participate in an initial
planning stage: Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Rhode Island, and
Minnesota.

"We determined we just did not think it was feasible, and that the
goals could not be accomplished within the time and resources
anticipated,'' said Carolyn H. Asbury, the director of Pew's health and
human-services program.

Originally, Pew expected to select three finalists this year, and
award each state $1 million to $2 million annually until 2003.

"We're very disappointed,'' said Pamela S. Zappardino, the director
of Rhode Island Families First, the state's coordinating body for the
project. About 400 people from government, business, school districts,
and other organizations had been involved in the effort, and the state
had invested about $300,000.

The board of the Pew Trusts has authorized its staff to explore the
possibility of awarding up to $4 million in funding for related
projects in what Ms. Asbury described as "two of the most promising
states:'' Georgia and Minnesota.

At the heart of the children's initiative was a plan to create a
network of "family centers.'' The centers, which would be near schools,
would provide services ranging from prenatal care to family counseling
to book- and toy-lending programs.

The Fallout

The first indication that something was amiss came as a "big
surprise'' to Sherry F. Jelsma, the secretary of the Kentucky
Education, Arts, and Humanities Cabinet.

Several weeks before the official announcement, the five states
participating in the initial stage received a memo from Pew saying,
"Don't plan any activity past March 1, and don't expect to be funded
past March 1st,'' Ms. Jelsma said.

She estimated that the state had dedicated at least $1 million worth
of staff time to the initiative.

"The reason it didn't work is that they gave us a vision and said
this was a shared vision,'' Ms. Jelsma said, "but it was already
packaged in a box with a bow around it, and you couldn't get it out of
the box.''

"If we had not been selected to receive a grant, we would have
accepted this graciously,'' Gov. Brereton Jones of Kentucky wrote in a
March 11 letter to Rebecca W. Rimel, the president of the Pew
Charitable Trusts. However, he added, "we never anticipated that an
organization as reputable as yours would decide to discontinue the
initiative entirely.''

"I am confident you and your colleagues realize how devastating this
decision was for our state and the others who were participating,'' he
continued. "I am also confident that it will have an effect on future
participation in the Pew Charitable Trusts initiatives.''

Ms. Jelsma and Ms. Zappardino said their states will move ahead with
plans to develop collaborative integrated-service systems for children
and families, despite Pew's withdrawal of support.

While Ms. Asbury of Pew said it may have been a lot easier to just
move ahead, "we think it may not have been the prudent thing to
do.''

In interviews last week, other foundation leaders said that they
were saddened by the initiative's demise but that they understood Pew's
reasons for the decision.

"Like everybody else, we were disappointed,'' said Douglas Nelson,
the executive director of the Annie E. Casey Foundation, a Greenwich,
Conn., philanthropy that has supported efforts to integrate education,
health, and social services. "But,'' he added, "our commitment to this
kind of grant-making strategy and this kind of partnership with state
and local governments is actually deeper now than it's ever been.''

Barbara B. Blum, the president of the Foundation for Child
Development, agreed. "We shouldn't be walking away from the concept,''
she said. "We should be trying to understand what level of commitment
and what level of investment will be required in order to achieve what
had been proposed.''

Vol. 13, Issue 28, Page 9

Published in Print: April 6, 1994, as Pew Abandons Its Ambitious 10-Year 'Children's Initiative'

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